by Sandwichman
Sun Aug 6th, 2006 at 12:48:19 PM EST
With reference to the notion that le Parti pour la décroissance and de-growth is the "capricious idea of perfectly selfish spoilt kids," I would like to mention the American public intellectual, Lewis Mumford, who wrote, at the time of the moon landing in 1969:
The most conspicuous scientific and technical achievements of our age -- nuclear bombs, rockets, computers -- are all direct products of war... The moon-landing program is no exception: it is a symbolic act of war... [I]t was deliberately planned as a means of swiftly perfecting the equipment for total extermination -- the strategic goal toward which our entire megatechnic power system, in the lethal grip of the 'myth of the machine' is now pointed.
This sandwichman would be interested to hear if anyone can offer a rebuttal to the notion that the strategic goal of national economy is today directed -- at least to a very considerable extent -- at perfecting the equipment for extermination, not forgetting that the form of national income accounting currently in use was predicated on arguments about how to pay for the second world war.
